


Living on a Prayer

by Lady_Kaie



Series: Crossroads [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Boys Kissing, Childhood Trauma, Comfort/Angst, Declarations Of Love, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/M, Falling In Love, Gen, Gentle Kissing, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kidnapping, Kissing, Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Multi, Neck Kissing, Oral Sex, Other, Rough Sex, Sex, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-12 16:01:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29013219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Kaie/pseuds/Lady_Kaie
Summary: Life is not for the faint of heart.  The beginning of yours did not start out as a fairy tale and left you scarred and damaged in ways you never thought would be healed.  It took two men with their own traumas and regrets to breathe life into you...In more ways that one.
Relationships: Gladiolus Amicitia/Ignis Scientia, Gladiolus Amicitia/Ignis Scientia/Reader, Gladiolus Amicitia/Reader, Ignis Scientia/Reader
Series: Crossroads [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2128431
Comments: 7
Kudos: 17





	1. We've got to hold on to what we've got

**Author's Note:**

> Part 1 of who knows how many....
> 
> I wrote this from a bit of a dark place so do not read it if you are easily triggered. 
> 
> Also I do not own the rights or anything in relation to Bon Jovi except for my love for him.
> 
> Song: Living on a Prayer was used for inspiration.

It was wrong. So so wrong….

And yet nothing had ever felt so right in your life. Every moment of second guessing that had come before this moment during each and every situation that cropped up in your life had been something that you slaved over, before, during and after the fact. This particular moment would not be one of those instances.

You had wanted this for years and now the moment was at hand that all of your wildest fantasies wondering what this man’s touch would feel like, was upon you. The air was charged with desire, stemming from both parties and it was all you could do to stay grounded when you felt his hand rest down against your bent knee.

Ignis Scientia, advisor to the King, most gorgeous man you had ever laid your pretty ______ eyes on, was sitting beside you in his office, offering you a moment to forget the reality you existed in and step into one that belonged with him. You did not deserve this but you were weak willed when it came to him, and everyone knew it. Even Ignis knew. He had been using it against you for well over the past year as you worked side by side, flirting and suggestively offering little romps that would lead to your destruction.

How could he think to tempt you with perfection when you are far from it? Didn’t he know that once he had his fill of your heart and soul that you would be ever ruined for another? But did you really care? Did you want another? Because others had come and gone, offering their companionship for a night but none of them had touched you. Your last lover was years past, sometime during the darkness when a rogue daemon stranded you in a cavern with another hunter. Tensions mounted between the two of you coupled with the overwhelming fear of death that was sure to find you, and one thing had led to another. When the rescue crew came to your location, that was the end of your camaraderie and it had been more than fine for the both of you.

After all, you had other duties that needed your absolute concentration. Serving Lunafreya was one of them, and you could not effectively do so if you were tied down to someone…

Someone who wasn’t Ignis.

His hand felt like a weight, pushing down your apprehension with a fair amount of force so that all he left in its wake was desire. Raw and pulsating wildly within your breast, you felt it move up your throat and threaten to strangle the breath right from your lungs that were shuddering within their cage.

Don’t look at him…. Don’t do it….

You mustn’t! IT was the last thing you could do, so you kept your eyes fixated on the long fingered hand, ungloved and free to be viewed in all of its splendor, against your bent knee. And that’s when he chanced more. Shifting that single centimeter that separated you, his knee now against yours, Ignis rested the papers down in his other hand and turned his torso to run perpendicular to yours. The rise and fall of his chest came into view and you actually had to bite off a whimper.

“Tell me to stop.” He whispered against your cheek, having leaned further into your very small bubble of personal space, drawing the tip of his nose along pathways not yet mapped out on your flesh. The words held no merit to them, in fact they contradicted their meaning by the tone he used, because even if you knew you weren’t meant to touch his beauty, you knew that he had been pursuing you.

Part of you wanted to throw Gladiolus in his face to get him to back off, but the Shield was very open with his relationship and had on several occasions dropped the hint that he and Ignis were searching for a third in their relationship. There were of course plenty of women, or men depending on what the two men wanted, to court and bring into their little twosome, but over the past year of rebuilding they always seemed to gravitate toward you. Now you lied to yourself? They both wanted you, for ages now. And you them.

Why you couldn’t possibly begin to fathom, considering you were damaged goods, but they did. And it was terrifying. Gladiolus Amicitia, Shield to the King and Ignis Scientia, Advisor to his Highness, wanted you?

It just couldn’t be.

“_________…” He breathed out your name directly against the shell of your ear, lighting your senses on fire and simultaneously trapping you beneath the spell he had begun to weave. “Look at me.” Another demand, one that slid so simply from his gorgeously curved mouth, and one you were powerless to deny.

You watched as his hand began its journey up to your thigh where the line of friendship into lover was clearly marked and as his fingertips danced over the line, your eyes finally rose to meet the green orbs trained on you. Bewitched by his beauty and the scarring that marked him a hero to Eos, your breath halted. He was nose to nose with you, waiting and searching for your submission because he would have it…

He knew he would even if you were struggling to maintain your slippery grip on the self control you pretended to have. One brush of his nose to yours, then a glorious whisper of his lips crossing your own little pads of flesh, were what finally sealed the deal.

Overwhelmed and overstimulated, your eyes slid shut and your lips parted just far enough that when he leaned down to take his first kiss from you, the air he released from his lungs trailed into yours and filled you up. Part of you had expected this moment, when it arrived, to be rushed and demanding, or perhaps you had needed it to be that because then it would mean that Ignis wanted only to fuck you, but as he tested the texture of your bottom lip with his tongue, everything changed.

Fear gripped your broken heart as it dawned on you that Ignis was not making his move to sate his body’s needs. He was laying claim to you. You were going to be his by the end of this regardless of if you wanted to be or not.

“I would never hurt you.” Ignis breathed against your mouth when he felt warm little droplets transfer from your cheeks to his. Plenty of men and women had hurt you, its why you put up blockades against people who got too close, and it was why you were so terrified of this man. He had been one of the only ones besides your Queen to burrow into your damaged little heart and make you feel hope. Hope that you wanted to fight against, because it would never stay, but Ignis was a masterful hero against the villainy of your past and determined to make you believe in something other than the negative that infused your existence.

“I - I know.” You murmured through his kiss.

Pleased with such a response, Ignis delved deep inside your moist cavern and led you through your first dance together. Dazed completely by the richness of his taste against your tongue, your hands reached up to hold tight to the cotton t-shirt draped across his upper body even as he slid one hand up to the back of your neck to hold you steady. Strength that you certainly didn’t possess, he had an abundance of and it was at your disposal.

Ignis’ other hand was far from idle as it danced up your thick middle to cup at your handful sized breasts, not too large and not too small, where he tested your sensitivity with the tips of his fingers against your nipple. The little bud was already straining against your sports bra and he barely had to pinch for a gasp of delight gasp against his tongue.

“Did that feel good, my Darling one? You’ve neglected yourself for so long…” Again, an accusation that he knew the answer to but felt the need to say out loud. And once more, tears pricked your closed vision. HIs lips deviated from your mouth to collect those little beads of sorrow that he swallowed down and made his home. “So stubborn… thinking that no one could want you or that you aren’t enough… when you were made to be worshipped. To be loved…” His eyes are open wide and pin yours in place so that you cannot look away. These words mean more to you than you care to admit, and he knows it.

“Ignis… please…” Don’t make promises that I don’t deserve for you to keep… You shook your head furiously at the words he believed, trying hard to deny them because your voice refused to work, but then he took hold of your cheeks and took possession of your lips all over again.

“Hold on to me.” He bid you tenderly, draping your arms around his neck with determined motions. The moment that you were somewhat wrapped around him, he stood and crossed the large space of his office to reach the couch he had spent many a night sleeping on, you were deposited against the thick noir cushions embroidered with golden depictions of the gods. “Do you wish for me to stop?” OF course he would ask you again, not because he wanted you to deny him, but because he was a conscientious man that put his partners needs before his own.

Yes! You needed to say it. Needed to shout this single word that would end all of the future heartache headed your way, but your mouth and brain were not working for you any longer now that they had been overtaken by Ignis’ will. “No. Please don’t.” You had never begged, not once in all of your life, even when you were abused and hurt, you never begged for an end to such cruelty, but tonight was your breaking point.

Ignis stepped forward to place his hand beneath your chin where he guided your gaze up the length of his body. He was clad in dark grey sweats and a crownsguard t-shirt due to the late hour and the fact that you were working on a Saturday evening, but Gods he was easily the most gorgeous thing you had ever seen. “Then I won’t.” He replied as he slid to his knees and pulled you down into another all consuming kiss.

That night, beneath the grace of the Gods and the mercy of this beautiful human being who was trying to love you despite the monster roaring at him to back away, you truly gave yourself to Ignis and unknowingly bound yourself to him for eternity.


	2. Take my hand... We'll make it I swear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignis POV of that night and your submission to him.

He would be a liar if he said that he had been trying to fight off his growing attraction to the only woman who had ever ensnared his heart, but Ignis was not a liar. Not before the darkness and certainly not now after it, so he refused to let himself live in a world where he hid away from his own feelings.

For Ignis Scientia his life was well planned out, calculated to perfect precision so that he knew each and every move he needed to make at a moments notice. Falling in love with Gladiolus had been a preparation he had made, knowing that when they went on the roadtrip that would change their lives, that he would not come out of it without his heart owned by another. Months of training together told him that they had chemistry on a physical level, but those late nights when they stayed up discussing Noctis and then changing topic into personal interests, confirmed that they were compatible on an intellectual level too.

Eleven years later and here they were, still together and going stronger than they had ever been. The stresses of the darkness forced them both to grow up and bound them together through hardship instead of letting those horrors push them apart. Now they were building their lives again, side by side with their friends and King, and there wasn’t any other place Ignis wanted to be.

However he did want to add another element that had been on his radar for nearly the amount of time he had known Gladiolus’ love in his life. Eleven long years had come and gone where he calculated, waited and tried to force the perfect moment to arrive, but as always, fate was not his to determine even if he thought himself more clever than the Gods’ will. That’s why he had been so surprised when tonight came around and the call of work brought the two of you together, but neither of you were focused on the tasks at hand.

All he could think about was how small and sad you looked with the loss of your uniform and the facade you wore for the position you held at Luna’s side. He knew that your life had been anything but kind, growing up in orphanages and suffering through various forms of abuse before you were brought to Tenebrae by way of the Queen and gifted to her daughter in the form of her first friend. Much like he had been to Noctis. Unfortunately, even if blessed Tenebrae you had been preyed upon by persons who believed you to be filth, and unworthy of their Princess’ friendship, until Luna made it known that you were her consort and should someone touch or invite any malintent upon your person it would be seen as treason to the crown.

You had been thirteen to her fifteen when that day finally arrived, four long years after reaching Tenebrae, but the damage had been done and he could still feel the aftershocks of our lack of self worth to this very day. In the beginning of knowing you he had believed you to be nothing more than someone he needed to fix and then push back out into the world where you would of course thrive because he had saved you. Overtime, Ignis realized that he had a lot to learn about himself through you, and that his desire to help you stemmed from his desire to have you.

To own you the way you did him in a way he had only ever given to one other. But this time around he did not give himself willingly to his chosen interest. What happened had both enraged and delighted the Advisor. You had stepped right into his awareness and grabbed hold of his choices, making them your own, until he submitted to the unchangeable fact that he indeed belonged to you.

As the two of you had sat down to begin working, he began to map his conquest of you out in his mind when suddenly his body took over and he pressed his palm flat against the warmth of your knee. Surprised by the action, but too far in to stop, Ignis tried to rebound and take control fo the situation, but he was a mere instrument in your sexual awakening beneath his hands and mouth.

Being his lover would never make you question your worth again, and receiving his kisses would leave you healed up from all of the childhood traumas that shaped you. All that he was, was made for your healing and he would do anything to make you see it.

Ignis knelt at your feet, gazing into your deep _____ eyes that were so terrified, and drew you into his arms where you melted into his embrace as he kissed you without holding back. Tears mingled into your mouths, deepening your natural taste. “May I?” He murmured against your neck with a wicked smile that tickled against your skin when you took a breath. HIs fingertips were already curled around the waist band of your black leggings, waiting for permission.

Ignis’ chest was tight with tension while he waited the few seconds it took you to respond, but evaporated when he heard your shuddering whisper. Taking his time, he uncovered the length of your chunky thighs, down to the well developed calves that had been developed from nonstop travel and fighting while daemons roamed Eos and he couldn’t have been more pleased with what he found waiting for him.

“Beautiful.” He murmured as he bowed down over your lap and pressed open mouthed kisses against toward the slope of your inner thigh, nipping at the soft hairs that dotted your skin.

“I… I’m sorry. I know I’m not… I should have…”

Ignis almost growled at the worry in your tone, but kept hold of his calm and instead opted for a furious shake of his head and a pointed stare. “Do not apologize. I want you. All of you… just the way you are. You.” His palm ran up the front of your body, almost moaning at the heat your core was exuding through the cotton of your panties, to your round tummy and further until his fingers perched between the valley of your breasts and fisted into your shirt. “Are perfect. I wouldn’t change a thing about you.” Not one. He did not need manufactured femininity that society determined was right or attractive, all he wanted was your truth. All of your flaws and imperfections that he was determined to memorize and adore.

Didn’t you know that by now? Didn’t you understand that he endeavored to be a savior not a conqueror?

“Truly?” This was the first spark of hope he had witnessed between the two of you to such a degree and it filled him with absolute joy.

“Truly.” He affirmed as he released your shirt and continued the journey up to your neck where he pulled you down for another lingering kiss. This one left you both weak all over and whereas he rebounded quickly, you were boneless at long last beneath his ministrations.

A soft sigh left you as he laid you back against the armrest of the couch and stood up to shed his clothing in the soft light that emanated from his desk lamp. With each article of clothing that fell to the ground around him, Ignis watched your gaze come alive with more interest than fear and thanked the Gods above that he would not have to fight your fears. He had been ready to, but since he did not have to, he could give into your pleasure without hesitation.

Ignis’ knee slid onto the couch where he knelt between your parted thighs and then lowered himself until he was enveloped in your curves and embroiled in another heady kiss that sent blood rushing to his growing cock that was still confined in his boxer briefs. He hadn’t been with a woman for close to thirteen years, and though he was far from being a virgin, this was still a first for Ignis.

Your taste and your warmth that flowed from thick curves were the first that had ever enthralled him to such a degree. The rounded breasts atop your chest that pushed into his for attention, were the first he strove to devour and suckle until your screams were filling his ears and branding them by your spoken pleasure. He made quick work of the long shirt and bra that had no place in this moment, and then continued his unhurried exploration, down to your belly. Thick marks and padded skin greeted his tongue, leading him on a path he would memorize before the night was done. A path that brought him to the heated center between your thighs that was already gushing with arousal. “Ig.. Ignis…” A sharp gasp of his name drew him out of the haze of lust that clouded his senses when he got his first smell of your core and as he looked up he saw an admission written through your eyes.

This would be your first kiss upon your lower lips and he was honored to be the one you had chosen to bestow such a gift. Other lovers that you had willingly chosen had been a means to an end, not something to explore or enjoy, just an answer to the call of the nature of your body. Ignis would be more than such a call. He would be a need you kept answering.

“Close your eyes, My Darling one. Take a deep breath… and give in to me.” He asked so much of you, but knew that you would obey him because he could feel the control he wielded over you. A control he would never exploit unless it was for your pleasure. All of this was only ever for you.

The moment you relaxed under his firm strokes and gentle kisses that dotted your thighs, he pushed apart your thighs and made his new home between them. He caressed the extra flesh of your inner thigh, kneading the muscle hidden beneath your softness, and acquainted himself with his new lover. “Your smell is intoxicating my love…” He almost lost his composure right then and there as his fingers danced upward and parted your slick folds shrouded with moist curls and the scent of you permeated the air. With an inhalation of air, he felt your taste settle at the back of his throat and groaned. “I’m going to take good care of you.” Always and forever.

A shocked gasp slipped from your lips when Ignis dragged his tongue through your slit, taking up a collection of your juices on the tip of his tongue before swallowing it down to savor your taste. Then he repeated the action over and over until you were a whimpering mess, rocking your thick hips up against his face to find more glorious stimulation. He would never deny you…

Ignis grinned as he slid the muscle in his mouth back down to the heated center of you and slid his tongue deep within. You bucked up against him unabashed and then collapsed back to the couch completely slack and unable to hold shape. Ignis grinned against your entrance, beyond pleased with how open you were being with him, and set to your pleasure with renewed vigor. All he wanted, all he needed, was to hear and feel you come apart due to what he was doing to you.

So he set to work with his lips pursed around your clitorus and began with one long finger inside of you, twisting and turning to find that special spot. The moment he found it, another joined the dance, guiding a firm pressured rhythm against the top of your vagina toward the back until you were screaming with abandon to the ceiling above. Ignis watched you with wide green eyes, dying to be inside of you so that he could feel your orgasm all around his cock, but not wanting to break the moment and what was your very first finish by a mouth against your warm, wet pussy.

“Iggy?” A voice called through the man’s memories of moments that had passed far too quickly for his taste, and drew him back to the sound of running water hitting marble tile. “You okay?”

Ignis leaned away from the wall where he had braced himself beneath the cascade of water and turned to find his lover behind him, completely naked and looking a touch worried. “Fine.” He answered shortly as a massive sigh heaved from his chest. Tonight had been a situation that was a long time coming, and while he should have been happy that it finally happened, he couldn’t help but feel as though he had made a grave mistake.

When he had walked the two of you out of his office and then to the corridor that separated your living quarters, he had held on to your hand until the tips of your fingers were the only parts of your body touching. As you broke away from the safety of his presence and disappeared down the hallway that would take you home, a heaviness settled into his heart. He wanted to shout at you to return to him where you were safe and wanted, but his mouth refused to work.

So he turned and returned home, alone and lost without you by his side. Technically he had known that once the two of you came together that it would be the final step in solidifying a relationship that had been building over the past decade, but he had never thought that it would be finalized so quickly.

It had been wrong to let you walk away from him and even if he was trying to lie to himself, Gladio knew his heart. His lover took the strides required to reach him and then wrapped Ignis up in his arms. “Did it happen?”

Ignis nodded, “Yes.” He whimpered through clenched teeth as he fought not to cry. It was in vain though. Bowing his head forward, Ignis let out one sob after another until he was weak and prone in Gladiolus’ arms.

Gladio smiled against his beloved’s neck as the man he loved more than life itself, released the weight of his emotions and finally let them have their rightful place in his heart. Their relationship was going to grow soon and the gruff warrior breathed his own sigh of relief.

Finally. Ten years later and it was finally here.

You were going to be theirs and they would be yours.


	3. We've got each other...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Facing Gladiolus...

(One week later)

The barriers of your body fell in the path of such a noble warrior, and as Ignis’ thick cock breached past your entrance to sink down deep to the depths of your clenching sheath, you finally felt like you were living. Braced above you on strong arms, he put distance between the two of you not because he wanted it, but because he needed to see you.

“Exquisite… My Darling… you are pure heaven. How have you chosen me? How can I ever think to be worthy of you?” He whispered to the spirits of this blessed star that were in the room at this moment, reveling in delight that you were both now trapped amongst the webbing of fate they had created for you. 

Shifting so that you could wrap your legs up around Ignis’ narrow waist, writhing in an attempt to accommodate the heavy weight splitting you open from the inside out, you shook your head. “I am unworthy of you.” He was so deep, so hard, and it was unlike anything you had ever experienced.

Was this love? Was it pain? Weren’t they one in the same?

Ignis’ gaze went from lazy and content to sharp in an instant as he leaned down and nipped your kiss swollen lips in warning. “Don’t you dare. Not now. Not when we are one.” He whispered into your mouth as he slid his tongue inside and overwhelmed you with his taste. Then he absolutely devastated you with a swivel of his hips and fluid thrust against your pleasure center. A cry separated your lips. “That’s it my Darling… come apart beneath me. Let me please you… “ His eyelids fluttered shut as you clenched around him and one more thrust was all it took for those damning thoughts to flee your mind.

“Iggy…” Your nails skimmed the length of his arms with little red trails, all the way up to his broad shoulders where they latched on fiercely as he took you with slow, hard thrusts. “So… so good.” But was it? You had experienced good sex, but this was beyond that.

This was bliss and starlight wrapped up into one sensation and it was going to be your undoing. Ignis was reaching into the depths of all that had created you and reshaping you beneath the image he carried of you in his mind. It was a dream that eluded you but was now within reach. Could you take this show of grace?

“Just good?” He teased against your ear as he dropped down to his elbows so that you were surrounded by the protection of his body and he was enveloped in your softness. “Surely it’s more. Or I am not doing my job. I want you to feel like a Goddess…” He kissed his way down your neck then, nipping at the swells of skin that peaked up from your chest where he found a pert nipple waiting for his attention.

A goddess? Surely this man was a fool if he thought that he made you only feel like a mere Goddess. If there were a higher being in all of the universe, then that was what you felt like in this moment as you lay poised beneath his heavenly body. Ignis’ words, tender touches and overwhelming desire to please you were as terrifying as they were benevolent. He made you feel like his whole entire reason for existence. “So… so much more…” The word choked themselves from your parched throat, desperate to be spoken so that Ignis could be praised the way he deserved.

More words came, more sounds of unrivaled joy, and as he made love to you long into the night, your heart begged the question…

'Will you be mine, Ignis Scientia? And can I at long last be yours?'

***

What a selfish girl you were. A filthy, selfish, horrible little mistake…

That’s all you had ever been and it was all that you could ever be.

That’s why you were in Gladiolus Amicitia’s office, staring at the ground beneath your feet while praying that it would open up and swallow you whole where you would then be dragged to Ifrit’s hell and set ablaze for your sins. “I’m so so sorry.” You rmurmured through tears that you had no right to shed.

The only right you had in this moment was anger and retribution that you would not stop should the Shield decide to take it from your flesh and blood. Whatever penance he decided you needed to pay, then you would do so without a word of complaint. 

Gladio had been buried under paperwork that always piled up on a weekend, but the moment you rushed inside of his office with your head hung low, he knew that said paperwork was probably going to be waiting another day to be finished. The moment was upon the three of you…

And surprisingly enough, it had happened quicker than he had been anticipating.

“________.” His tone was heartbroken and if you had been brave enough to look into his copper orbs, you would have seen that heartbreak written through his gaze as well. But you weren’t brave because you had wronged him horribly. “Don’t apologize…”

“I have to! I had no right to him. I had no right to touch what was yours.” In the orphanage if you took something, such as food, that was not yours then you were beaten with leather belts or whatever swatch of thick material that could be found and would inflict pain. When you got older you were given other punishments that your body had been deemed old enough to take. Afterall, you were past the desired age for a child, so you were worthless.

A worthless, broken little creature that didn’t deserve kindness. Just like you didn’t deserve it now. “I’ve stepped all over our friendship by what I’ve done. And I’m here to submit to your will. I will not beg for your mercy.” You still didn’t lift your eyes to Gladio’s which was unfortunate because you would have been able to see the horror written there for what you were offering him.

This breakdown of your psyche that you had compartmentalized during your years with Luna’s influence encouraging you to believe what you were worth, absolutely petrified Gladio. Now in this moment and in your mind, you were not a human being, you were a worthless object made to accept cruelty, that didn’t have a right to feelings or common decency. The moment you began to strip out of your heavy uniform so that he could see aged scars raked at all angles across your back, Gladio jumped up and hurried around his desk to reach you. “Stop. Stop.” He reached for your hands and once he curled his fist around them, he pulled you up against his chest and held you there. You were safe there. “I would never hurt you. I…”

How could he put this extra weight on your shoulders when he knew you were in a dark place and flailing around to get back to the safe existence you had made at their side. Your young years had been horror filled in ways he didn’t fully understand until those six months he had gone missing during the dark years. Those six months that he refused to talk about with anyone because he had not been the man he had trained to be, one who was strong and capable of defeating each and every foe that crossed his path.

All of that changed in the blink of an eye when he was lured out on a hunt by another hunter who was angry at him for the prestige he held in the eyes of Lestallum’s public. He had known that nothing was right about that hunt, but he had gone anyway, thinking that he could do the job and escape whatever plans the other man had for him. How foolish young, proud men were. That day he had learned a hard lesson.

Six months he had been broken down from the Shield he had believed himself to be, only to become a slave for a group of mercenaries who had lost significant numbers due to a harsh winter and a fallout with Niflheim’s forces. Gladiolus had been beaten, starved, and paraded out in front of their women as a prized stud that would surely yield them a new generation of monsters. But the Gods had been with him, and those women had stayed barren, though they protected him from other violations because he was too pretty to give up.

That had all happened during the second year that Noctis was gone, and it had taken close to five for you and Ignis to heal him from the trauma. “I love you too.” He gasped out through his tears, stripping out of his jacket to wrap it around you quickly and then pulling you back into his arms where you belonged. “I would never, ever hurt you.” Gladio knew that you hadn’t done this because you thought him a vicious man, but because you had been trained to expect a punishment when you wronged someone.

“You have not wronged me.”

“Haven’t I?” Curling your arms up around the massive tattooed shoulders of this glorious beast of a man, you held on tight to him and let the tears flow. “I didn’t have a right to him. He is yours.” Ignis was who Gladio needed to be with him and he shouldn’t have to share him, especially with someone like you.

Gladiolus released you only far enough so that he could reach up and hold your flushed face in his hands so that you could not run away from him. “You listen to me. He wants you and so do I.” Some higher force had drawn the three of you together over this past decade and even though there had been numerous trials that should have pulled you apart, the friendship that had been built was unbreakable.

“Do you want me?” He asked you with fear in his eyes that he usually hid away. Gladio knew that you related to him on a different level than you did Ignis, but he had always hoped that you would find love for him. Even if you couldn’t love him, even if all you could do was tolerate him, then he would accept that and never ask for more.

The pain of rejection that crossed Gladio’s features ripped your heart clean out of your chest and set a jackhammer to the poor little organ. “Of course I do.” Loving Gladiolus had never been a question in your mind because it came so easy.

He had been transparent from the very beginning, and it was his warmth and charm that drew you to his side and gave you the bravery to try for friends outside of your Queen. Prompto needed care, Ignis was far outside of your reach, but Gladio had been a safe haven for your struggling self esteem. He made you laugh until you cried, and when nightmares pulled you out of your sleep, he was there to keep them at bay when you were calm enough to try to sleep again. Falling in love with him had been just as easy, but when he came back you had sworn up and down to the slumbering Gods that you would never harbor another improper feeling for either man because they needed one another. Not you.

Gladiolus could be saved from his nightmare, but you were too far gone to be awarded such a gift. So you put away your love for him on a romantic level and poured yourself into their friendship so that Ignis could take his rightful place by the other man’s side. And that’s when you began to notice Ignis’ interest in you come out of hiding. Over the next eight years both men would pursue you, but you hadn’t been able to battle past your guilt for harboring feelings for either of them, so you refused them both at every turn.

Until one week ago. 

One week ago you lost the battle and admitted defeat against the fierce warrior that Ignis was, and gave yourself to him. “But you aren’t mine to have. I cannot taint you with what I harbor inside…”

“What you harbor inside?” Gladiolus scoffed at your self deprecation and jabbed a pointed finger in your chest to get your attention. “Your kindness? Your goodness? All of that dedication you poured into making me feel safe when no one knew how to help me? When I didn’t know how to help myself?” He stepped away from you so that he wouldn’t wrap his hands around your shoulders and shake you until your brain was scrambled from the force. If there was one thing he couldn’t stand in all of this world, it was your hatred for yourself.

“Gladdy.” You begged him, lower lip trembling in a desperate attempt to not cry.

“Don’t you Gladdy me. I know you struggle when you are anxious and stressed, and I know you think you aren’t worth anything, but Gods dammit I can’t take it anymore.” He whirled around to face you all over again and encroached upon your personal space until you were hiked up against his desk with your palms braced on the hardwood. “If I could I would kill everyone who ever hurt you. I would scour this planet until I brought each one of them to bow down at your feet and beg your forgiveness. I would never let you accept because they don’t deserve it, and there at your feet I would spill their blood as an offering to your peace of mind.” It was a violent promise that would have shaken a more tender hearted individual, but you were moved by his ferocity and felt something inside of you snap. It hearkened back to a moment in time when such actions had frightened him, and now he was promising them, to you.

Drawing your hands up the dark whiskered cheek you pulled him in close until his broad lips caressed yours. “Take me Gladdy.” You begged with a soft growl that was swallowed by your warrior as he devoured your mouth with a hungry kiss.


	4. And that's a lot for love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gladiolus and Ignis finally get through to you

Gladiolus had never anticipated his morning to go this way, but here he was, lost in your kisses and kind touches as he pulled apart the thin fabric hiding your body from him. You had asked him for something, and he was going to deliver on that request. “It’s okay, baby…” He whispered against your cheek where he pressed a loving kiss against the plump expanse. HIs hands were trembling, and cock aching for respite, but he took his time because its what you both deserved. Granted you deserved more than a quick fuck against his desk, but for some reason the haste of the moment felt right.

There were eight years of repressed feelings between the two of you and he couldn’t allow one more second to pass without setting them free. He unbuckled his pants and dropped them only so far so that he could withdraw his throbbing member, and opened his eyes to gaze into your own. What a vision the universe had gifted him with…

Mussed hair from his thick fingers and lips that were swollen and rose pink from all of his kisses, pride filled his chest as he looked down your body and beheld your curvy glory that was draped in his heavy jacket. Your pants and panties were long gone, which meant only your bra remained, but he made short work of that too so that he could lean down and take a sip from your nipples that puckered tight inside of his mouth. He sucked and nipped until you were arching up against his face and mewling with desire for more. “Baby…” He slid his fingers up your thighs and deviated inward to toy at the saturated folds of your womanhood. 

“Gladdy…” His whisper had been a plea for you to find some semblance of calm, while your groan of his name was a desperate calling for him to fill you. To slide within your body up and force the darkness out of your soul once and for all. This was desperate, unhinged, and it was the only time you had never wanted his tenderness. You needed his bravado and brute strength to force your fears into submission. Ignis had prepared you for a future, but Gladio could solidify the reality that it wasn’t just a dream. Reaching between the two of you, you took him in hand and pulled him forward until the head of his cock eased through your slick gates and brushed against your clit.

“Fuck!” Gladiolus’ control bottomed out to nothingness now that he was so close to heaven and with a strangled cry, he put his hands against your hips, tilted you backward onto your elbows and slid home all the way to the hilt. Head bowed down against your chest where your heart was hammering out a devastating beat, he shuddered against you as he struggled to cling to his sanity. “You’re mine. Say it.”

“Yours.” You replied without hesitation because it would be wrong to deny the truth. “I swear it.” 

“Good.” Gladiolus growled against your chest, licking a long line up the valley of your breasts to the slope of your neck and further still until he slid the slick muscle deep inside of your mouth and began to move.

One hand on your hip, the other was your support against the back of your neck where he held you against his hungry mouth so that he wouldn’t miss a single cry of affection or whimper of pleasure. This was his nourishment amongst the oasis of your body and he would not miss a single drop that you had to give him. Powerful hips rocked into yours without reprieve, but you did not shy away, you wrapped your legs around him with your stockinged heels, little heeled pumps dangling from one foot and completely off of the other, digging into his taut buttocks.

A rough climax rocked you to your core as Gladiolus slammed home that final time you needed, and then you were screaming out the peace that this glorious man had given you through his touch alone. When your body clamped down around the thick shaft inside of you, it took your lover by complete surprise and sent you toppling back to the hardtop of his desk so that his heavy chest pressed into yours. Breathing was near to impossible, but it didn’t matter as you watched his own pleasure spark in his copper eyes and felt him fill you up as he roared out praise for the finish you had provided him. “Mine.” His tears were falling against your face while he sobbed, praying and hoping that you would give in and not go running like you had with Ignis.

“Yours.” Wrapping Gladiolus up in your arms, you held him tight against the storm of emotions that he had been holding inside for so long, and felt your own sorrow purged through his tears that rained down on you. 

“Ours.” Another voice, relieved beyond belief, called from the doorway. Neither of you needed to look to know that Ignis was with you and he too was shedding tears for the fact that this hard fight was finally over.

There would be other fights to come, but in this moment, the three of you were finally in agreement that you all belonged together and nothing, not your pasts or the memories that haunted any of you, would come between the three of you from this moment on.

Gladiolus chuckled when he felt Ignis lightly swat his rump, and stood up carefully because he didn’t really want to leave your tight heat, but well aware that you would undoubtedly appreciate a more comfortable place to rest. He pulled out of you with a soft groan of disappointment that you echoed and then jumped as he felt a warm cloth trail his groin. “Thanks Iggy.” He leaned in for a tender kiss and then stepped away so that he could put himself back together while his lover saw to your comfort.

Mortification stole your pretty face but Ignis shook his head and kissed it all away as he slid that same cloth down to your throbbing core and tenderly wiped away the fluids that were seeping out of you. In the heat of the moment you had readily accepted the slight pain that came with a rushed interlude and embraced it as pleasure. However, in the aftermath your body was protesting your brash attitude and reminding you that not only had you not had sex, excpet for Ignis, in several years, but you had not had sex with someone that was Gladiolus’ size in possibly ever. Ignis’ smirk prompted you to smack his shoulder. “Don’t be mean.”

He chuckled and kissed the tip of your nose. “I’m not being mean.” He informed you with a grin. “I am merely sympathizing because I too have been in this position.”

“Oh ha ha. Yeah yeah. I’m super big and its not always comfortable.” Gladio snarked at the two of you with a frown on his face. Once upon a time he enjoyed bragging about his size, but over the years he had come to appreciate it less when his partner ached after their lovemaking. Deep down he knew that Ignis never minded, and sometimes wanted the pain, but he still didn’t like it. He certainly didn’t like it happening to you either. “I’m sorry, baby.”

“Don’t be.” With Ignis’ help you slid down off of the desk and let him button Gladiolus’ heavy coat around your very naked body. A heavy scent of spice and ash filled up your nose, reminding you again that you were a claimed woman.

How had he done that? How had he forced you to accept him without putting up a fight? Surely this man was touched by Titan and had channeled his formidable will to capture your wild fears and lock them away from the light. “Come.” Ignis turned his gaze to you and then to Gladiolus as he held one hand out to both of you and siad, “Let’s go home.” 

It was midday, but none of you had been sleeping well enough to be rested and Noctis and Luna had been waiting for the fallout to happen amongst the three of you. In fact it had been Luna who clued Ignis into the fact that you were ready to crack, and with a text sent from Gladiolus’ phone, summoning you to his office, you did just that. Perhaps it had been wrong of him to orchestrate this entire situation, but he loved both of you and would do anything to keep you safe even against yourselves.

Gladiolus was the first to put his hand in Ignis’ and the handsome advisor didn’t have to wait long for you to follow suit. Pleased that neither of you argued with him, he leaned in to give his strong soldier a tender kiss before he then turned to his beautiful warrioress and took another heartfelt touch from your pliant lips. “Ready?” You both nodded, and as he led the two of his broken angels from the office wing to the safe haven that would be known as your shared home, he felt his heart swell with pride.

That pride grew as he helped the two of you strip from the various articles of clothing on your bodies and then tenderly pushed you both into bed where you immediately curled around one another and merely held one another. “I’ll return with some lunch.” He murmured against your brow, making sure you were covered and warm on his side of the bed.

“Okay Iggy.” Gladio whispered for you both before he lifted the blankets up and burrowed deeper into the softness of the bed.

Ignis raised a somewhat amused brow at what he was seeing, and tried to hide his smile until he was at least out of the bedroom that he shared with Gladiolus and now you. Thankfully when they had moved into the Citadel at Noct’s behest, he had chosen a King size bed for their bedroom, holding out hope that you would finally come to them. A long year of light later….

And there you were.

Thank the Gods! Perhaps they were finally going to know peace and happiness without all of the pain that ruled your lives. If the two of you were going to be alright, then he too knew he could finally let himself heal and return to the man had had always prided himself in being. The monster that he had become during those years in the darkness could retire to the shadows once and for all.

****

Gladiolus looked down upon his blood streaked lover with real fear in his eyes while you were resigned to what you were seeing. You knew this monster because it had been part of you when chaos descended and all of that rage you held in check for years, came bursting free. “Iggy…” Gladio murmured, shocked at the massacre surrounding the three of you.

He wanted to ask what had happened here, but he already knew the answer and it terrified him. 

Ignis turned to his love and the woman who had captured his heart, and stared the two of you down without a hint of apology on his face for what he was about to say. He was a protector and he had failed his King, but he would not, could not! Fail the man he loved any longer.

For a year, Ignis hunted down the creatures who stole his Gladiolus’ smile from him and left their marks all across his tanned flesh, until the very last one choked on the blood filling up his lungs and perished. None of them had gone to the beyond in peace and that was how Ignis had wanted it.

Wiping at the streak of blood running down his cheek, he dropped his daggers to the ground and motioned to the death he had heralded. “What does it look like Gladiolus.” He hissed out to the darkened sky, holding his arms wide as though Ramuh was waiting to strike him down.

But there were no Gods… there was no justice! They were living in hell on earth and rules of civility did not apply in this world. Men and women pillaged and raped, stealing and thriving on chaos, without consequence until now. Ignis was the consequence. He was the hunter in the night that the monsters whispered about coming for them. He was the beast that hunted them and carved retribution from their worthless hides.

Judge. Jury. And executioner.

“Iggy. It’s you?” The man talked about in hushed whispers in the seedy parts of Eos that even the bravest hunters avoided. IT was his Ignis?

Prim and proper, looking every bit the perfect soldier that he had been raised to be, the twisted grin that curled his gorgeous lips struck terror into Gladio’s heart. “It’s me.” He nearly shouted into the unending night, stalking back and forth amongst the bodies that the beyond no longer wanted. Souls they claimed, but now the carcass of the fallen was left to rot on the star’s soil as a punishment for their follies.

“Do you think I could abide by what they did?”

“Iggy…” Gladio’s copper eyes dimmed in sorrow and though his heart twitched in fear, he knew that he had never loved this man more. And that really scared him.

“Don’t Iggy me. They called you away from me, from where you were safe, and took you, Gladiolus. They took what was mine! And then they thought to continue on living as though they had not committed such an atrocious transgression.” The slight grimace of joy spread full blown into a toothy smile that a wolf would give the unsuspecting rabbit that waltzed into its territory. “Do you really believe that I would allow them to go on haunting you with their presence on this star?”

Gladiolus didn’t know how to respond to that even if the damaged man inside of him was pleading for his calm, collected lover to come back to the fore. He didn’t know this man that was smiling at him like a madman while he stood amongst the dead preaching to them. He didn’t know this Ignis…

Or maybe he did and that’s what scared him more. Maybe he had always known that Ignis had the capacity to stow away his humanity and turn into a ruthless monster that even the daemons avoided by hiding behind the trees and skeletons of buildings that littered the landscape. The Shield had known that this side of his perfect love was breaking free from the constraints of a controlled man, when Ignis made to sacrifice himself for his King. A man possessed, he shed the fears that held mortal men in check and challenged those who decided fate. 

You and Gladiolus had been suspecting that when Ignis slunk off on his ‘hunts’ that they were not fully innocent and now as the two of you stood amongst his madness, you knew the truth. He had been the one to slay not only the men who had captured Gladiolus a year ago, but the ones you had been terrified to come across in the darkness.

Instead, Ignis had found them and struck them down without warning. Had they been frightened? Had they known why he did it?

“Yes.” You heard him whisper affirmatively. His face was not twisted into a mask of glee, it was simply matter of fact and entirely unapologetic. “THey knew why death came calling for them… and they pleaded for mercy that they never gave either of you. So I gave them none in return.” To some this man was no better than the monsters who had spent their lives ruining others, but in your eyes, he was your hero.

What Gladiolus didn’t realize as he broke down in the filth and muck on the ground, was that Ignis’ actions would bind them that much closer. All of the strength he maintained on his physical person, Ignis wields in mental strength that he had never possessed. So he cried for the loss of a world that no longer belonged in this world of darkness, and then he let his protector dry his eyes with his uncovered hands and lead him home.

The three of you never spoke a word to the rest of the world about what Ignis had done and for a time the Monster of the Darkness, faded to a memory, though every now and again he stepped from the shadows to exact his own form of justice.

And the world praised him for it.

They needed a guardian angel, and this beast of death was the perfect one to see them through endless nights and the horrors that threatened at every turn.

***

Now, in the light, Ignis could put that darkness inside of him back in the shadows because he knew that his loves were safe. But should either of you have need for the Monster he wielded, then he would return.

And he would strike down any and all threats to your happiness and his own.

“Iggy!” The duet of your voices called from the safety of the bedroom, drawing Ignis from his musings and back into the present where he was needed. 

“Coming.” He soothed with a patience he had long ago mastered. Finishing up the plating on the tray where sandwiches and a three bean salad and fruit salad were heaped in two large bowls, he gathered the wooden structure up in his hands and made his way to the room. Two heads peaked up from the pillows with tired eyes gazing at him as though he had been missing for days and not mere minutes. “I’m here.” 

And he always would be.

Afterall… it was soon to be the four of you… and he had another life to protect.


End file.
